Might on her side

Gemma Hayes's debut album collects great reviews from such tastemakers as Music Week, the Sunday Observer and (ahem) Ok Magazine's 'Hot Stars' (the last of whom reckoned, 'She's not just a pretty face - she's actually very good.' Cheers, thanks...)

It's rave reviews all round for Gemma Hayes whose Night On My Side album is shaping up to be a major summer hit.

The praise is equally fulsome in OK magazine's Hot Stars supplement: "More than just a pretty face, she's actually a very good singer-songwriter. A perfectly balanced blend of acoustic and electric songs, which means you won't find yourself nodding off midway through."

Trade bible Music Week also gives the album its seal of approval: "The songs – largely reflective and hushed, but with the constant threat of guitar violence – are what make the set."

Meanwhile, Ms. Hayes says her Hot Press 'Best Female Singer' Award has convinced her parents that she doesn't need a 9 to 5.

"Those things are great for your family because even when I got a publishing deal my mum was sending me secretarial job application forms 'just in case it all goes wrong!'" she reveals.

Gemma Hayes to break it down in Tipperary

The Sea Sessions

A wee gem

Despite a series of major label knockbacks, Gemma Hayes has not only survived but established herself as one of the country’s most individual talents. She talks to Olaf Tyaransen about her new
album, Let It Break, falling in love, courting Hollywood – and dancing a jig for Ronald Reagan.

Gemma Hayes announces comeback gigs

New Gemma Hayes album on the way

'Undercover'

Like much of Haye’s second album, The Roads Don’t Love You, ‘Undercover’ is bland and distinctly average. The sense of intimacy, and indeed the delicate nature of Haye’s songwriting, which made Night On My Side so special is lost amid the bigger production. Often ‘Undercover’ sounds dead and lifeless; Hayes’ vocals, less subtle than before, lack honesty, with the previous sexiness to her phrasing now sounding forced. Dull.

Gemma Hayes live at Vicar St, Dublin

“Holy Shit!” Not the words you might expect to hear from the usually quietly-spoken Ballyporeen beauty. But that was precisely her reaction to the rapturous reception she received from a packed to the gills Vicar St. for what, I’m reliably told, was her biggest solo headliner to date.

Dublin date for Gemma Hayes

Gemma Hayes live at The Village

Happy Sad

In a slightly unfathomable move, the lead single from Hayes’s second album makes its appearance a couple of weeks after that record’s release, by which point it will have become clear that the singer has managed to sidestep that difficult second album problem with aplomb. All of which leaves ‘Happy Sad’ a bit redundant and most probably with little chance of troubling the upper reaches of the charts. Record company tactics aside, though, this is a lovely, warm and fuzzy song that moves the Hayes sound forward, if not in giant leaps.

Lost in a Hayes

Following the success of her Mercury-prize nominated debut album, Gemma Hayes was struck down suddenly with writer's block. Her artistic recovery was a long, painful process, taking her from a sleepy Kerry village to downtown L.A.